WHAT ALL HAPPENED MARCH TO AUGUST 1981
Find out what all happened March to August 1981

After 19 years of presenting the CBS Evening News, Walter Cronkite signs off for the last time. (6. March 1981)

Bobby Sands dies in the Long Kesh prison hospital after 66 days of hunger-striking, aged 27. (5. May 1981)

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issues its "Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party Since the Founding of the People's Republic of China", laying the blame for the Cultural Revolution on Mao Zedong. (27. June 1981)

Ronald Reagan fires 11,359 striking air-traffic controllers who ignored his order for them to return to work. (5. August 1981)

6 year old Adam Walsh, son of John Walsh is kidnapped in Hollywood, Florida and is found murdered two weeks later. (27. July 1981)

Murder of Adam Walsh: the head of John Walsh's son is found. This inspires the creation of the television series America's Most Wanted. (10. August 1981)

François Mitterrand wins the presidential election and becomes the first Socialist President of France in the French Fifth Republic. (10. May 1981)

Xerox PARC introduces the computer mouse. (27. April 1981)

U.S. President Ronald Reagan awards the Congressional Gold Medal to Ken Taylor, Canada's former ambassador to Iran, for helping six Americans escape from Iran during the hostage crisis of 1979-81; he is the first foreign citizen bestowed the honor. (16. June 1981)

British television: on Coronation Street, Ken Barlow marries Deirdre Langton, which proves to be a national event scoring massive viewer numbers for the show. (27. July 1981)

The opening of the Humber Bridge by Queen Elizabeth II in England, United Kingdom. (17. July 1981)

The longest professional baseball game is begun in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The game is suspended at 4:00 the next morning and finally completed on June 23. (18. April 1981)

President Mohammad-Ali Rajai and Prime Minister Mohammad-Javad Bahonar of Iran are assassinated in a bombing committed by the People's Mujahedin of Iran. (30. August 1981)

In a private meeting with U.S. President Ronald Reagan, French Prime Minister François Mitterrand reveals the existence of the Farewell Dossier, a collection of documents showing that the Soviets had been stealing American technological research and development. (19. July 1981)

The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk, the first operational aircraft initially designed around stealth technology, makes its first flight. (18. June 1981)

Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest approach to Saturn (25. August 1981)

President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John Hinckley, Jr. Another 2 people are wounded at the same time. (30. March 1981)

The first launch of a Space Shuttle (Columbia) takes place - the STS-1 mission. (12. April 1981)

Provisional Irish Republican Army member Bobby Sands begins his hunger strike in HM Prison Maze. (1. March 1981)

A Richter Scale 6.9 magnitude earthquake at Golbaf, Iran, kills at least 2,000. (11. June 1981)